Dan Scott wrote:
> But, in any case, I'm not coming to, or stating, a claim--just observing
> that the dealer I visited yesterday didn't know about the new products, and
> wondering how good Pentax's communication with dealers was in general.
Back when I was working at another shop that sold Pentax and two other
major camera lines, it was basically up to us, the staff, to wander
through the volumes of literature arriving in the mail every day from
every manufacturer. Often stuff got tossed into a pile to be examined
later...and unfortunately, sometimes we missed stuff. Most of the time
we found out about new products when the rep came by to show them to us.
As a result, we always knew about what was new with Pentax, since we
sold a fair amount of their gear and their rep was in a lot. One of the
other two was in a lot as well, and we were on good terms with him, but
the third we rarely saw, and as a result we sold less of their gear
(since we didn't really know what was good about it or what the selling
points were aside from what we could glean through handling and quick
jaunts through the manuals, which we didn't have a lot of time
for)...now, he probably wasn't in much BECAUSE we didn't sell much of
their gear, but it was one of those self-perpetuating cycles.
I think that dealer knowledge depends a whole lot on the reps and how
much contact the reps have with the sales staff...a rep can spend ages
with the boss, but what does that do if the boss doesn't pass the
knowledge to the staff? When our reps came in, we'd always assemble
everyone to see the new toys and ask questions because it was the best
way for everyone to learn what they needed to in order to sell the stuff.
Now, being a Pentax fans and having access to the glorious PDML, we are
all probably better informed than the average dealer by far.
-Aaron
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